HYPOCRITE: Climate Carney's firm sold deforestation-linked farms in Brazil

Is newly minted Liberal leader and soon-to-be Prime Minister Mark Carney being transparent about his environmental track record given his sermonizing about climate change and net zero?

A years old BBC article begs the question about his time at Brookfield Asset Management. An investigation revealed that Brookfield, where Carney served as a senior executive, sold farms in Brazil linked to deforestation.

Carney’s financial holdings in Brookfield are estimated to be — or were — well into the millions.

The land sales contradict Carney’s public stand that corporations should retain and rehabilitate climate-damaging assets rather than divest them.

According to a Global Witness report cited by the BBC, Brookfield subsidiaries deforested 9,000 hectares of Brazil’s biodiverse Cerrado savanna between 2012 and 2021, converting the land into soybean farms before selling them in 2021.

The activity released around 600,000 tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to 1.2 million London-to-New-York flights. The Cerrado, a critical ecosystem bordering the Amazon, is said to be vital for limiting global warming to 1.5°C, per the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Carney, who joined Brookfield in 2020 as vice chair and environmental transition lead — later becoming chair of its asset management arm in 2022 — has been a vocal advocate for decarbonization and net zero.

He started the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) in 2021 and has urged companies to “own the problem” of carbon-intensive assets through managed phase-outs, not sales — a position he reiterated at COP27 and before the UK Parliament.

Brookfield at the time defended the sale, claiming it was decided years ago as a fund reached its end, obligating a return of capital to investors.

The company acknowledged the lack of fiscal pathways to reforest profitably but said it was working with GFANZ to develop solutions.

Critics, including Global Witness’ Veronica Oakeshott, argued Brookfield should have reforested the land, highlighting a disconnect between Carney’s climate rhetoric and his company's actions.